


so i can forget how lonely feels

by paopuleaf



Series: voicemails to/from ascension [4]
Category: Blaseball (Video Game)
Genre: Marriage Proposal, Other, Post Season 12 Latesiesta, Sharing a Bed, mentions of other crabs and garages, this is just. sweet. this is JUST sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-05
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-18 21:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29864361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paopuleaf/pseuds/paopuleaf
Summary: tot’s phone goes off once.twice.three-four-five-six-too many times to count.“check the news,” ze says, doesn’t even glance at hir phone, sits up from where ze’s sitting between malik and arturo, “check the news, turn it on-”WARNING: BREACH IMMINENTtot watches with quiet, bated breath, and lets hirself cheer with the other two as the screen flashes to video of the crabs standing in the middle of their old field, again.(or; after years and a lot of voicemails, luis finally comes home.)
Relationships: Luis Acevedo/Tot Clark
Series: voicemails to/from ascension [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2057883
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	so i can forget how lonely feels

**Author's Note:**

> tot uses ze/hir, luis uses they/them. the very long awaited crabs down reunion.

tot’s phone goes off once.

twice.

three-four-five-six-too many times to count.

“check the news,” ze says, doesn’t even glance at hir phone, sits up from where ze’s sitting between malik and arturo, “check the news, turn it on-”

**WARNING: BREACH IMMINENT**

tot watches with quiet, bated breath, and lets hirself cheer with the other two as the screen flashes to video of the crabs standing in the middle of their old field, again.

-

luis’ phone goes off once.

twice.

three-four-five-six-too many times to count.

they’re clinging to the other crabs, hands buried in fabric and face wet with hardlight tears, grinning wider than they have in weeks. when they look up to the cameras flashing at them, the news there, feet on the crabitat’s grass, they hope tot is seeing them, now.

-

“hi,” luis says into the receiver, still surrounded by crabs as they curl around piles of blankets in kennedy’s townhouse. they’re out of breath, amazed. “guess who’s back.”

“you,” tot says, voice tinged with laughter, “crabs down. didn’t have to throw you a wake.”

“you didn’t! i haven’t-” luis covers their mouth, ducks their head into kennedy’s back to stop from laughing, near hysterical. “i haven’t listened to the voicemails yet, you left me  _ so _ many, it’s- i’m excited to. i’m excited to  _ see  _ you, tot.”

“i have them all downloaded for the flight over.”

“the  _ what _ .”

tot snorts. “the flight over, luis, it’ll be plenty of time to listen. did you think i wasn’t coming?”

“i- of course. yeah. of course! i-” 

“don’t start crying on call, i don’t think i’ll be able to handle not being there.”

luis wipes at their face, flicking tears off onto their clothes. “i’m  _ not _ ,” they protest, “but you should hurry, anyway.”

“getting on the flight now.” tot stops. starts, again, voice softer. “love you. see you soon.”

“love you too, see you!” 

the click of the phone hanging up is  _ different, _ now that luis knows someone was listening. that tot was listening. they bury themselves back into the crab pile and wait for the ring of their phone, again.

-

luis does not jump at tot when they open the door to see hir, regardless of what anyone else has to say about it, and they do not end up tumbling onto the grass because of it, clumsy and startled. but they end up on the grass laughing somehow,  _ somehow,  _ luis managing apologies through their snickers as tot runs a hand through their hair. 

“is this okay?” they say, once they’ve calmed down enough to think, shoulders still shaking. tot blinks at them, before looking at hir bandages and shrugging. “you sure? i didn’t- expect to get this-  _ happy _ . we’ve been apart for this long before, right?”

“i’m sure,” tot replies, before pausing, lost in thought. “not like this,” ze decides on. luis nods into hir chest, untangles themself to lay on the grass next to hir, hand finding hirs easily. “watched you guys get your ass kicked up there from the telescope.”

“yeah, well- how’d the garages do, huh?”

“we got to the finals, actually-”

“what!” luis sits up in time to watch tot grin, hir eyes glancing over to meet theirs. “you did  _ not! _ ”

“we did.”

“did you win?”

“sunbeams,” tot says, with a hint of annoyance. luis snorts.

“sunbeams. i’m- you don’t have to update me on everything with blaseball, i’ll listen to your voicemails, i just-” luis pauses, squeezes hir hand. “it’s been a fucking  _ while,  _ huh?”

tot hums in agreement. after a moment, ze sits up, leans against their shoulder, all casual. “it’ll be like a podcast. for when i’m asleep. you didn’t miss much.”

“it  _ was  _ only a decade, i guess.”

“it was,” ze agrees. “i wrote letters, too. if you want to read those.”

luis gasps, knocks their head against hirs, careful. “ _ obviously  _ i want to read those, tot, who do you think i am? wait- oh, no, did we steal pedro and val’s brand? we can’t tell them. the horror!”

“if anything, they stole our brand.”

“we got a new one, apparently! i like hearing your voice, anyway.” 

“and yours.” it’s a little stilted, and luis drags their whole attention to checking on hir. ze seems fine, just- caught off guard, the slight strip of cheek exposed beneath hir eye flushed. 

“tot.”

“luis.”

“i didn’t think you still got embarrassed about compliments like that,” luis teases. tot fixes them with a look, half-hearted. “a whole decade of them to make up for, huh.”

“you’re going to kill me.”

“that’s the goal!”

tot goes silent for a long moment, before getting to hir feet, dragging luis up with hir. “if you’re going to compliment me to death. i want my corpse to be in a real bed. you have to be tired, right?”

luis opens their mouth to protest that they’re not, and they don’t need sleep, but they think about it for a moment, another. the exhaustion hits in a wave once they acknowledge it. “maybe,” they tell hir, and ze snorts.

  
“hm.”

“definitely. ken’s okay with us borrowing the guest room of the townhouse, if you want. i don’t really want to leave the crabs. yet, anyway. unless you don’t want to stay. either way?”

“it’ll be nice to have the noise.”

“yeah! it will be.”

they pass by the other crabs on their way up the stairs, kennedy offering a wave from where he’s sitting with finn, and close the guest room door behind them. luis sits on the edge of the bed and waits patiently for tot to take off hir shirt, eyes on the loose parts of the bandages that weren’t done quite as clean. “who’s been doing them?”

“not me,” tot says, “i think.”

“ _ that’s _ extremely specific of you. and also ominous? two points!”

“hm. yeah. will you help take them off?”

“of course!” luis leans forward to pull hir over, reaching around to untie in the back and begin to unwrap. “will you be okay with lying down after this, or do you want the bed to yourself?”

“luis.”

“yeah?”

“i’m not kicking you out of the bed on your first day down from ascension,” ze says, flat, and they laugh despite themself. “it’s good, today. contact. not too much, but. the usual.”

luis nods, hands still moving even as they lean back to look up at hir. “you’ll tell me if anything changes?”

“always.”

it’s quick work, even if it’s out of practice, hands shaky. tot pulls the covers over both of them and huffs, fond, when luis flips over to face hir, faces close. “weren’t we going to sleep?”

“obviously. yes. but i’m  _ here, _ tot.”

“you are,” ze echoes. “i missed you.”

“missed you too. did you think we were coming back?”

tot hums in agreement, and luis smiles, lopsided, hologram flickering faintly at the edges. “we didn’t, i guess! not really. i’m glad there were people down here doing it for us.”

“why not?” the voicemails have to have given hir the answer to that, they think, but they open their mouth anyway, close it.

“it was rough, up there,” they begin, stop, “rougher than anything blaseball gave us down here. and that was new, and surprising, but it… hurt? it hurt. a lot of us! and then siesta started and, i guess it didn’t  _ hurt  _ anymore, and that season compressed into a blink, but we didn’t know anything. or anyone up there. nobody-” luis laughs, leaning into tot as ze begins to card fingers through their hair again, “nobody  _ told  _ us shit, it was annoying! it was awful. i missed you.”

“you didn’t think you were coming back.”

“mm.”

luis doesn’t say anything else, and tot pulls them closer, rubs hir thumb over the places on their hologram where the skin is glitching off and becoming a hundred/thousand/million other things. “you’re here.”

“i’m here.”

“ascension isn’t in the book anymore.”

“it isn’t?”

tot hums, and feels luis relax, slight. “thought you had all the fine print memorized.”

“thought it changed after we went up. haven’t had the time.”

“we can look at it tomorrow. the point is.” tot taps on their hand until they look at hir. “you’re not going anywhere. not for a while, anyway. and not back there.”

luis stares, for a minute, before they smile, slight. they press a kiss to tot’s collarbone and ze can feel the grin against hir skin before they pull away, sighing, content. “love you.”

“love you too. you think next time you go somewhere fucked up you could take me with you?”

“i’ll try my best!”

“hm…”

luis snorts. they sit there in the comfortable quiet, and tot keeps running hir fingers through their hair until ze falls asleep, soothing and telling all in one breath. “we should get married,” they murmur into hir chest, and ze shifts, a little too much to be asleep.   
  
“married?”

“you’re supposed to be asleep.”

“oops.”

a laugh. “can we get married?” luis repeats, a question, this time. “i want to.”

“me too. yeah. yes. marriage.”

“ _ yeah, yes, marriage, _ ” luis repeats under their breath, affectionately mocking, and tot huffs, says something unintelligible about being woken up. “i love you so much. you know that, right? the decade didn’t replace the centuries?”   
  


“it could never. don’t you want to marry me?”

“ _ yes,  _ duh, tot, that’s why i asked-” ze laughs, louder than usual and sleepy, and luis wiggles out from under the covers to kiss hir. “you’re the worst,” they mumble against hir lips.   
  


“you want to spend the rest of your life with me.”

“ _ you _ want to spend the rest of  _ your  _ life with  _ me _ .”

“a long time.”

“a long fucking time,” luis echoes. 

tot reaches into hir shorts pocket, a little crowded, and pulls out a familiar, worn, well-loved corded yarn bracelet, a bell hanging from it. “we don’t have rings, yet, but. if you want to put this on?”

“can i put it on you, instead,” because they’re trying very hard not to tear up again, and this might just kill them, “it’s yours.”

“of course.”

tot hands it to them, and they carefully tie it around tot’s wrist, ignoring the light-water on their cheeks as they grin. “still fits perfectly!”

“‘course it does.”

ze reaches up and wipes at their cheek, shaking hir head when luis pulls away, noise scrunching. “don’t, i’m not crying, my eyes are committing mutiny- here. equals, both of us.”

luis presses something into hir hands as they push them away, a bracelet made of fuzzy twine and a wooden carved bone. “if you want,” they finish, and tot takes their hand wordlessly, slips it on, oh so careful. “thanks, tot.”

ze just hums, and it’s luis turn to cup at hir face, still teary. “go to bed, dumbass, you’re so tired,” they tell hir, and ze gives them a look, one eyebrow slightly raised. “i’ll go to bed too, we’re married, we get to tell everyone tomorrow.”

“we do,” ze replies, soft. 

“night, tot. love you.”

“love you too.”

“see you in the morning?”

tot thinks of the ends of so many voicemails. nods.

“see you in the morning, luis.”

**Author's Note:**

> im going to go lay on the floor and cry now. [through tears] thank you for your time  
> you can find me @ catboydeicide on tumblr or @ ghostcatboys on twitter !


End file.
